Lot 67
A PORTRAIT OF A LADY IN A DIAPHANOUS CHOLI AND SARI ‡
MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1740
Auction: 09 December 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
gouache on paper heightened in gold, mounted on to a gold speckled album page with remnants of a signature in black ink to the lower edge, the image depicting a lady facing right and wearing a soft transparent purple and gold sari, bejewelled with five strands of pearls along with pearl earrings, all reserved on a light green background within a narrow gilt-floral border, verso with a Persian ghazal copied from the hand of 'Mir ‘Ali (Haravi) by Sayyid ‘Ali in 1091' (AD 1670), written in diagonal lines of nasta'liq script within gilt cloudbands in black ink on a brownish ground with white floral detailing, gold-speckled blue border, gold and blue margin lines
Dimensions
folio 37.6cm x 27.6cm, image 19.3cm x 12.4cm
Provenance
Formerly the collection of Carlos Duran, Orange County, California.
Formerly the collection Muhsin Mahdi (1926-2007).
Private American collection.
Muhsin Mahdi (1926–2007) was an influential Iraqi-American Islamologist, Arabist, and professor. He served as a longtime professor at Harvard University and is best known for producing the first critical edition of The Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) based on the oldest surviving Arabic manuscripts.
Footnote
Not only is the painting on the front rather striking, but the calligraphy on the reverse is equally special. The ghazal is signed by Sayyid ‘Ali, otherwise known as ’Jewel Pen'. A native of Tabriz in Persia, Sayyid Amir ‘Ali relocated to the Mughal court during the reign of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58), where he was given the title Jawahar Raqam (’Jewel Pen'). He was appointed as instructor to the young Prince Aurangzeb (r.1658–1707) and was made the curator of the Imperial Library. He died in the Deccan in AD 1683.
Further examples of Mughal female portraits with a calligraphy signed by Sayyid ‘Ali’ are in the Royal collection. The album was compiled during the reign of Muhammad Shah (r. 1719-1748) with the miniatures executed during this period (see E. Haman, Eastern Encounters, Four Centuries of Paintings and Manuscripts from the Indian Subcontinent, London, no. 37. Another panel signed by Sayyid 'Ali is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, (object number: 1999.356O) and two other panels, probably by him, are in the British Museum (1974,0617,0.21.16 and 1974,0617,0.21.48).